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Thirty days sounds like quite a long time but somehow the month just slipped away. At least that was our experience with November. Granted it was a busy time as we had tasks around the house and new work projects. Still, as you’ll soon discover we had plenty of time to play.

Though we’ve both lived in Tucson off and on for a number of years, and are pretty familiar with it, there are always new things for us to explore. (Which is one of the many things we love about the area.) Especially in the outdoor arena since Pima County owns over 200,000 acres of protected open space. That may sound like a large chunk of land but when you take into account the county’s massive size, roughly 9,200 square miles, it’s a small portion. When Arizona first became a territory, after winning separation from the New Mexico Territory in 1863, Pima County was established as the southernmost of the four original counties. Since that time about 21,000 square miles were removed from Pima County to create three other counties. Even thus reduced Pima County still surpasses the four smallest states in size!

Of course there are other large publicly held chunks of land in the county: Saguaro National Park with 91,440 acres, Ironwood Forest National Monument with 129,022 acres, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with 330,689 acres, the massive holdings¹ of the Coronado National Forest, and numerous other protected parcels. Though Tucson, the county’s largest city, is afflicted with that awful modern blight called urban sprawl, nature is still easily accessible. I will return to that in a minute, but first I have to share this with you.

The county was named after a group of indigenous people living in southern Arizona. Of course, Pima was not what they called themselves, it was the name ascribed to them by the first Europeans to visit. As the story goes, the natives kept repeating a word during their first meetings with Spanish explorers. In the language of the Akimel O’odham the word pima is part of a phrase that means, “I don’t understand you.” And in some ways I think that is a fitting moniker for our county.

Now, back to nature. In the Tucson Mountains to the west of the city, not far from our house, is the 20,000 acre Tucson Mountain Park. Established in 1928 the park endeavors to protect natural and cultural resources while also providing recreational experiences through its sixty-plus miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails. Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation which manages the park offers naturalist-led hikes that highlight different trails in the extensive system. Unfortunately it was a work day, so Lance had to stay at home, but since I was off I happily took the Hidden Canyon hike.

Though the hike was short, a little over two miles, it was a nice introduction to a trail that I was not familiar with, plus the views were outstanding. Within a few moments of hiking all sight of the city had disappeared and we were surrounded by towering saguaros and the chatter of birds. Except for the all-too-frequent airplanes that flew low over the mountains on their descent into Tucson we had no reminders of the large metropolis we’d just left behind. The hike took longer than you might expect since our guide stopped often to share information about the natural features of the Sonoran Desert. Not that I minded, I enjoy learning, and I picked up a few new tidbits.

The best part came near the end of the trail: on the side of a nearby hill were some Mule Deer. It was a small group consisting of two adult females and two of this year’s young. One adult was resting in the sparse shade of a Palo Verde tree, the other was patiently nibbling tiny leaves off a bush that hardly had any greenery to spare. This past summer’s monsoon, one of the Sonoran Desert’s two rainy seasons, had delivered precious little rain, stressing both plants and animals. While one of the youngsters cavorted agilely up the hill, the other sought out its mother for a quick meal. It looked too big to still be nursing and the mother only tolerated her offspring for a few minutes before moving off in pursuit of more food. Of course, I was mesmerized by the event, it was one of those special nature moments. Made me wish Lance had been there too, at least I had some pictures to share with him.

A few days later my sister and I spent an afternoon crafting new batches of handmade soap. I tried my first batch about a year ago, and liked it so much that it has turned into a bit of a hobby. My sister has since also been infected by the soap-making bug and we enjoy experimenting together. Plus it provides us a chance to get together and chat—just as long as we don’t talk during the oh-so-crucial measuring moments. That led to disaster once, though thankfully, only once.

The next week I joined my sister and her friend Debbie in a quest to make a police car shaped cake for my brother-in-law’s upcoming birthday. Talk about a production! It probably didn’t help that none of us had any experience creating interestingly shaped cakes, much less decorating them. Since that is not really my area of expertise I focused on the mechanics of the project: the lights and sound. Because seriously, what good is a police car cake without flashing lights and a siren? I clustered a strand of battery operated mini LED lights to form the headlights and the car top light bar. (Unfortunately, they did not flash but they were bright and everyone got the point.) For the siren I dismantled two plastic police car toys and wired their sound system to the cake board. I was pretty proud of myself, even if it was too loud in the restaurant during the birthday party for anyone to actually hear the sirens. It was the thought that counted, right?

That weekend Lance and I made a giant loop up to the Phoenix area; we popped into IKEA for a few items for Lance’s office, stopped at the Queen Creek Olive Mill for some of the best flavored olive oil ever, and then met our friends Rich and Karen in Superior for lunch. They are back volunteering at Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park where we first met four years ago. Since becoming friends we’ve shared many adventures from Galveston to San Diego and points in between. Happily they have also chosen Arizona as their winter home which means we’ll have more opportunities to get together.

The following week it was time to show our school pride. We are both University of Arizona graduates so we hop on chances to support our teams whenever feasible. During the week we attended one of the men’s basketball games while the weekend brought the final home game for the football team. Our basketball team, which is young and has a new coach managed a win but our Wildcat football team was no match for the ferocious Oregon Ducks. Their offense kept marching down the field, in the last few minutes they tied the game which forced it into overtime. It was a hard fought game but one which the Ducks eventually won. Well, we tried to cheer them on to victory…

And then it was Thanksgiving. We all gathered over at Lance’s sister’s house; their two young boys were the entertainment and since we all shared in the cooking duties it was a nice relaxing day. The weather was lovely—warm and sunny—as it had been for most of the month, which allowed us the chance to go for an after-feast walk. Yet another thing to be thankful for…

Black Friday found us out hiking instead of shopping. We replaced the franticness of jostling crowds, the exhaust fumes from traffic jams, and the cacophony of holiday music and store announcements with a peaceful stroll through the desert, fresh air, and the chirping of birds. I’m pretty sure we got the best deal in town that morning…

Amazing how fast the month flew by—as you can see, we had plenty of fun in November.

Photos: View our photographs from Fun in November.

Notes:

¹ Which at 1,780,000 acres protects not only most of southeastern Arizona’s mountaintops but some in New Mexico as well. ↩